Free Birds
by Master Solo
Summary: They are members of the Hyuuga Branch House, but they are just as free as their brethren of the Main House. These are the stories of four such people.
1. The Idiot

Free Birds

By Master Solo

Summary: They are members of the Hyuuga Branch House, but they are just as free as their brethren of the Main House. These are the stories of four such people.

Notes: In case I don't get to finish this story, these are the four characters:

The Idiot, the Foreigner, the Medic, and the Little Sister

Case 1: The Idiot

"Come on, handsome, show us some real dance moves!" shouted the women of the small border town's nightclub as the ninja with the dark hair danced slowly, careful not to spill any of his sake. Flashing lights, large dancefloor, good music, and lots of women.

The pale eyed man nodded to the women around him as he finished his current cup of sake. How many had it been? Seven? Eight? He didn't know. He lost count after the first five. It was just another day of partying his way from Konoha up to the location that he was to drop off the important, rich person that he was supposed to be escorting. Just another C ranked mission. By the gods, it was good to be a ninja, always sent out to distant places for missions, which usually involved either escorting people or, in the case of his clan, finding missing people or objects, and always surrounded by gorgeous women. It was extra good when he had the most beautiful, pearly and pupilless eyes that not just attracted girls, but also allowed him to see past whatever he wanted to see past, such as clothes.

Then, there was that mark on his forehead that he's had since he was a baby. To him, it meant that he had a nice room all to himself in one of the most comfortable mansions in Konoha and delicious, warm food served three times a day during the time that he usually had in between missions. All he had to do was a few small favors for the Main family, such as give them a fraction of his income and babysit those adorable twins from time to time. In other words, more time inside the nice house with free access to their well-stocked kitchen. Then, on top of it all, it meant protection of his most gorgeous feature, his rare silver eyes, from poachers.

If the others members of his clan ever heard of his take on life, they probably would have thought him to be crazy.

"Alrighty then, ladies. Prepare to be blown away!" He grinned wildly as he focused on all of his chakra points and started spinning. "Figured this one sometime ago. I think there might be some name for it, but if there is, then I probably forgot it. Let's just call it the tornado!"

Within a few seconds, everything within a small radius of the man went flying. Unbeknownst to him, one of the beauties around him narrowed her eyes. Just as she suspected from the Hyuuga clan idiot. No special achievements on record, barely passed his classes in that ninja school, took five years to pass some Chunin Exams, was never considered for a promotion to Jonin because he never did more missions than he had do or showed up in front of the Hokage completely sober, and barely had any money left after all the sake and women, but at the same time, never had his seal activated or any important tasks from the Hyuuga elders.

A few minutes later, after the whirlwind destroyed the source of the music that the man was spinning/dancing to, the man stopped spinning. It was too late. Between his dancing and who knows how much sake, the entire club was spinning. He tried to walk, but could not sense which way the ground was and landed on something soft and warm. It was a gorgeous, darks skinned woman. Was it one or ten? And it kind of looked like the woman that he was supposed to be escorting. That did not matter when all ten of them were batting their eyelashes and buying him more sake. Getting drunk, dragged off and snogged senseless by a goddess was just another part of his free life.

Sadly for Daisuke, his freedom ended when he died of alcohol poisoning at a friend's party a few months after this mission.

Next: The Foreigner


	2. The Foreigner

The Foreigner

A few months after the tragic death of Daisuke, another free bird hatched on a distant island in the Land of Water. There was once a wealthy woman who wanted a child to inherit her business without a man involved, and so she took a few shots by bedding that handsome, foreign ninja as she returned from her trip to finalize the establishment of a factory in Fire Country. Yes, first tricking him into showing off what she believed was some secret power and then bedding him while he was drunk was a low blow, but if there truly was more than met the exotic eyes of that foreign man, then there was no better candidate to father her heir.

She did not think much of things until months later, a few hours after she'd blacked out during her labor. The first light that she saw was from a pair of pale, pupilless eyes and ashen skin that she was quite certain did not come from anyone in her hometown. No, people in her family were all shades of bronze and brown. But the shock white blonde hair that completed his monochromatic appearance, that must have come from her father's genes. What an adorable, glowing angel! When she realized that this was her new little boy, she named him Kouichi.

Zzz

Six years had passed since little Kouichi was born. A woman in her early thirties was sitting in the spartan kitchen, doing some sort of paperwork when a little boy bounced in. He was a bright little one, with a pair of blue-tinted shining eyes between a beaming smile and short, golden hair. The only thing dark on the kid was a forest green shirt with a phoenix painted on the front.

"Mommy! Mommy! I wanna go to Ninja school!" he shouted, bouncing all over the small room as he did so.

"But Snow Academy is the best school in the country," replied the woman.

"But I still wanna go to Ninja school!" the boy whined.

"Everyone in our family went to Snow Academy. It's an excellent place."

"But Keiko's going to be a Ninja! She says it's real cool. Come on, Mom! She just had ta make a doll out of water and her dad told her to go there…"

Before he could say more, the mother cut him off, "Many people in Ninja school, like Keiko, don't have a choice. Their parents are making them go. Being a ninja's dangerous work. Why go there when you don't have to?"

"But I still wanna go!"

"Kouichi…"

"I can see things above me and behind me and through walls and things like that."

"Okay, so what do you see?" she gave the boy a big, teasing grin. It faded when he told her that her best friend had come in with a bag of his favorite cookies and a blue outfit and was right behind him.

"Okay, you win."

Zzz

The first time that Kouichi saw someone with his unique eyes was when this boy with the dark, brown hair showed up on his island for the Chunin exams. They were now both in the middle of the ocean, using only chakra to stay afloat as they tried to make their way towards some underwater landmark. The blonde wore his headband on his forehead, so his messy hair shout around wildly all around the headband, covering all but the bottom few threads of the headgear. The opponent wore his around the neck. Up until then, the fight had consisted only of chakra-charged punches and kicks from the dark-haired kid and various water based jutsus from Kouichi. It was a good thing the nature of the battleground favored the Water ninja's techniques, or else he would have fallen to the taijutsu from the other kid long ago.

Since Kouichi kept his distance from the other boy, they were evenly matched. He then took a bit of a gamble and charged at the other ninja with a fist full of chakra. He was not surprised when the kid from Konoha made some hand sign, but the other party seemed astonished when nothing happened. It was enough time for Kouichi to land a blow.

When the fight was over, the older boy with the long, chocolate mane asked as he handed over his artifact, "Who are you?"

"Kouichi of the Beaches." Somehow, the Konoha kid seemed even more stunned after the answer.

Zzz

It had been seven years since the Chunin exams and Kouichi was now twenty years old. Like that day in the arena all those years ago, this day, too, was a day of change. He forced a grin as the Mizukage handed him a scroll.

"Kouichi of the Beaches, for your excellent service in locating hundreds of missing people and scouting, I appoint you to the rank of…"

Even though this was his own promotion, Kouichi was not listening. Instead, he was focusing blood and chakra into his pale eyes, which saw past the Mizukage and the first stack of papers behind the man. Mission: Locate the missing… It was their feudal lord's name. No, it was that lord's oldest child. From: He widened his blue-tinted eyes. That guy was definitely not on good terms with this feudal lord. But there was more. This one was for his childhood friend and teammate, Keiko, who was standing next to him in the Kage's office, also being promoted. Kill the… wasn't that guy one of the most prominent leaders in the civilian government up north? Kill that guy and his ninja bodyguards, and make it look like an accident. Ninja bodyguards, as in... oh, hell, no! Fortunately, the papers also said that the Mizukage was planning on assigning those two missions several days from then.

Hours later, as he and Keiko rowed their boat to take them back to the island where their apartments were, he stopped in the middle of the shallow seas. "Keiko-chan, please, listen to me. I read the missions roster and… They're going to use you for your kekkei genkai, your Ice Release, and ask you to kill our old one-eye! You remember him, us three. Team Tsunami. We'd always prank people with our jutsus and you'd give us a good whack if we went too far."

She said nothing, but her tears spoke volumes as they dropped from her faces onto the cascade of beautiful, black tresses.

"Come with me, then," he took out the papers from the inside of his jacket. Each carried a photo and a stamp that granted them safe passage into every neighboring country.

"I-I can't," she choked out in between sobs.

"Why not?"

"My clan, we signed a pact with the First Mizukage long ago. We can't leave the Land of Water, ever," she lifted her raven hair to reveal a tattoo at the back of her neck. "They gave me this seal when I was born. It'll kill me if I try to cross over. Your papers are useless here. It's just like you Hyuugas doing anything your clan heads don't want ya to do. You're just lucky that you were born in this country and your dad never knew. Take that luck and go! I'll figure something out with our idiot brother."

"Alright," he smiled. He once again looked like an angel of light and happiness. "I'll get my aft outta here, but ya gotta promise, you and our brother, you'd both better be alive and fine and don't kill anyone when I come back!"

Zzz

"Kou-kou chan!" the businesswoman greeted her son as he walked into her house. "What good news do you have this time?"

"I've retired from being a ninja," replied the pearly-eyed shinobi as he warmly embraced his tan, strawberry blonde mother.

"My god, I'm so proud of you. Every time you took a mission, I was afraid that you'd come back dead. Then they promoted you to Jonin…" her voice cracked as the tears of joy rolled down her cheeks.

"Tokubetsu Jonin," he corrected her. "Biggest sham I've ever seen. I've come to see things the way you do, Mother. There's a war coming up. Right now, they're polite enough to pay me to use my special eyes, but I know it'll just be a matter of time before someone tries to kill me for them. We're leaving this country while we still can. We got a branch in the Fire country, right?"

"That's too close to the Hyuuga headquarters. We're going to set up some business in the Land of Waves for now," replied the mother.

"Let's pack, then," he grinned. He did not need for her to explain that the family he inherited his unique eyes from had no power to force him to serve their main house as long as he stayed out of their home country.

And so, on the day the bird realized the conditions under which he could remain free, he took flight.

Zzz

Well, if you haven't guessed it, there's guest appearances by Hiashi and Haku's mother.


	3. The Little Sister

Warning: Light yuri. Don't like it, then don't read it. There are also hints of a certain other pairing between two canon characters. Please don't complain based on my choice of character pairings.

The Little Sister

To some, the most noticeable feature of the woman was in between the locks of silky, ebony hair that hung beautifully almost to her elbows. The basketball sized bust bounced with each menacing step that she took, threatening to flood out from her tight but flexible leather armor and the underlying net that covered and yet accentuated her skin. To others, it was the rest of the pale beauty's curvy body, but nobody could ignore the Byakugan's steely, gray gaze, with its hint of electrifying violet. She moved through the dense foliage with a predator's guile until she suddenly halted. To a normal eye, there was nothing but trees within a one mile radius of the place, but she saw differently. There, just a huge lot of invisible trees away, was the tent where her dearest was being held.

Some thought her to be one of the few members of the Hyuuga main branch. After all, her beautiful forehead and aura of confidence was bared for all to see. She thought so, too, until the day she became a Chunin. For the Hyuuga Main House, that was one of the days that marked coming of age. Specifically, that was when they were taught every secret of the Cursed Seal, from how to burn one onto any living creature to how to activate it. The newly promoted Chunin was supposed to conclude the day by successfully applying the seal to one of the many wild animals in the forest and bringing it home to be cooked as dinner. When she went to the head of the clan, she got a completely different message. All he did was command her to first and foremost protect the clan with the gifts that he gave her, but live freely until the next heir turned three.

The now retired old man did not need to say anything directly for her to figure it all out. Well, she was not quite certain as to what the old geezer was thinking, but she figured that if she walked, fought, and looked like the old man, then she probably thought like him, too. She knew that if she were the head of the clan, she'd never try for a second child until after the first one turned three and even then, try to favor the younger ones more so than the oldest so as to make everyone think that any of her children might be the actual heir. That way, the Elders could not do what they normally did with children of head of the clan, which was seal them upon the heir's graduation from Ninja Academy, or, in the case of those born after the first graduated from the Academy, upon the heir's next promotion. Most Hyuugas were sealed on the heir's third birthday, but the children of the leader who were born after the heir turned three were always an exception.

She wanted to change many things within the family, and so she was most likely to select the most gentle, idealistic one as heir to the clan. However, if such intentions were made open, the elders would openly resist and try to select another. No, she had to make it seem as if every child was a possible heir.

But such a trick would only suffice until the leader's first Byakugan-bearing grandchild turned three. Then, the parent of the first grandchild automatically became the head and all of the siblings were automatically placed in the Branch House. She stopped thinking about her family when she spotted the person she was looking for. A whole patch of the forest was burning and the target of her rescue mission was unconscious, right in the middle of the toxic fumes. She tried to make out the chakra around the burning area, but some sort of shielding jutsu was blocking her Byakugan's abilities. It was as if she could only see things close to the forest's floor.

Blood seeped into the dry, crackling earth from massive gashes on the unscious girl's body. Beyond the surface, there were broken bones and a lot of bleeding inside the belly. Either liver or spleen injuries. As bad as a direct hit to the heart, from what her father told her. Her anger boiled as she made for the figures lurking amidst the flames. Without hesitation, she launched the sixty-four palms attack on the person, but stopped, when he gave her a reply between rounds of his defensive jutsu.

"Time's ticking. Keeps fightin' me, an' that pretty girl over there'll die in jus' a few minutes. What's it gonna be?"

"Bastard," she muttered as she went for the other Konoha ninja, carefully avoiding all of the flames. Her mind barely registered all of the chakra around her that was running somewhat like a genjutsu.

Kaiten. It was no use. It just made the smoke swim in circles around her. It was too thick to fan away. And so she just scooped up the unconscious, strawberry blonde girl and commanded her legs to break for it. She coughed, clearing the smoke from her lungs, only to have it come back in a second later. The fumes were stifling. They moved, but due to the lack of oxygen, she only managed a few sluggish steps before she saw a small, blurry circle close to her backside, at the edge of her massive visual field. A sharp pain and a splash of warm liquid followed. Then another blade flew towards her neck, but she could not maneuver herself at all between carrying her girlfriend and being sandwiched between trees.

Her first thoughts were her children. No, she had never birthed any of her own, but around a year ago, she was assigned a genin team that comprised of three children who lost their parents when Konoha was destroyed. And then, the next thing she knew, the tough, emotionless and proud Hyuuga princess and the shameless pervert were the only mother figures these kids had ever known. Candy, the sweet little girl who loved to draw. Then Takuya, who liked to craft weapons by hand. She still carried the sword that he made her, even if she preferred to have her bare fists connect with everything that she beat up. He was good with her nephews and niece, too. And that irate little Monkey. It was the name that all of his friends called him. Brave enough to attempt to prank her at every opportunity, and stupid enough to think that she was a true member of the Main House. He reminded her so much of her own self when she was that age when he pulled that genjutsu on their mission report and made it read like a perverted hentai novel She hoped that they would understand that if she did not make it out of this forest, then it was because true ninja never left their lovers to die alone.

Those memories faded and she wanted to cough from all of the smoke. With her vast field of vision, she could see someone approaching with equipment that she had not seen before. Then everything faded and was replaced with something more familiar

She saw her twin nephews jumping up and down on her bed, blissfully. Two heads of fluffy, light brown hair, two pairs of pale violet Byakugan, who ate, cried, and pranked her together were about to be separated forever in less than a day. They had the facial features of the Hokage, but the light brown hair alone was enough to make her think only of their Hyuuga side.

The sight faded and her Byakugan focused on the poor, unconscious woman who was pinned beneath her rather heavy body. The Hyuuga girl wasn't fat or anything like that; she just had a huge lot of muscle from all of the workouts. The infamous pervy slacker and the quiet but extremely violent tomboy, who would have thought? As much as she hated stereotypes, she had to admit that the one about the more brutal and competitive ones like her, were true. She remembered when she first discovered the fact, when she first met the other girl. They were both still chunins at the time, on a seduction mission, and it was her first mission with another woman. The now unconscious girl was so chatty, lazy, and perverted. As if that wasn't enough, that older, light haired girl had so much intelligence underneath that cover that it was infuriating to the point where she managed to give the Hyuuga butterflies in the stomach whenever she came within a one kilometer radius of her. Then there was the way she swayed about whenever she moved. It wasn't perfectly graceful, but it was entrancing. Couldn't that girl get through one mission without distracting or bothering the Hyuuga? They were in their hotel room, about to take off for their target, when the next memory happened. Somewhere between listening to the older girl explain perverted jutsu, taking in the beauty who was doing all of the talking, and trying to shut out everything that, according to her father, was inappropriate for a proper Hyuuga, she acted impulsively for the first time. The pale-eyed warrior kissed back when that slacker got tired of explaining the art of perversion and started demonstrating by giving Hyuuga her first kiss.

She smiled. Her love. The reason behind every instance when Hyuuga acted on impulse. The only person to ever see her act anything other than confident and calm since she started training.

Things went black again and she mustered up all of the energy that she could in order to bring her sight back. She had to stay awake and get her beloved out, like a proper knight in shining leather outfit and mesh. She was a Hyuuga genius and geniuses never... a _Hyuuga_ genius. She thought back to her days in the dojo. She was a small child again, dashing towards the man with the dark, chocolate hair with a kunai.

"Good. Let's break," he said when she reached him. She could see a subtle smile forming at the corner of his lips, even if he held it back. Rare praise from the man for good work. If he had any semblance of a real smile, he always saved a few glimpses of it for her so that she could have a good life. Despite that she was the second child, he still gave her the gift of the Main House's fighting prowess. If she still had the energy, she would've smiled back.

Then there were all of those cousins. One older one stood out in particular. Oh, the number of times she rigged his room with all sorts of jokes. What did she do again? Oh, yeah. Paint his room pink while he was on a mission, do his hair and lace it with all sorts of girly hair things while he was asleep, the list went on. She was pretty sure she was the reason why he hated little children, even if she continued to prank him, with what she did just a few days ago being a prime example. When most ninja wanted to do things on behalf of other people for fun, they used the transformation jutsu. She did it the civilian way. Oh, did she look exactly like him after she bound her chest and she would've put on his clothes if they weren't all being washed. So she put on some loose fitting, generic, black Hyuuga training garb that she found in her father's closetand even in that, she still passed for her cousin. The plan of hitting on every girl she ran into under his name worked quite well... until her father appeared, looked like he'd seen a ghost, and got her love and his true heir to give her a girly makeover, with hair done and layered, very cute shirt, skirt, and everything.

The older chlid of the Main House was another one of those really important people. Those few hours in the mall and the hair salon were a prime example of why she did not believe that they were really born to the same parents. How could that older ninja possibly enjoy the hell called doing hair and trying on extremely girly clothes and not like training? In just a little bit, the Hokae showed up with the kids. All four of them. The twins darted up to her eagerly while the younger ones followed more hesitantly.

She could never forget that next moment, a few hours later, when she had to leave. The twins, as much as they reminded her of the Hokage and of her father, were something completely of their own. She would always have the wide grins that they wore when they asked her if she'd go to their birthday party etched into the back of her eyelids.

"I promise," she grinned for them. Tomorrow. By then, that tomorrow had become today. The party was in a few hours. She had to get herself and her girlfriend there!

No air. No movement. No feelings from the head down whatsoever. She laid still on the burning floor and tried to command her lungs to breathe, but nothing, absolutely nothing, from the neck down responded. One of the crackling trees around her suddenly, in slow motion, started to topple in her direction. In a few seconds, it would be pressing down on her back, along her blind spot, and she'd be helpless to remove it.

The smoke before her eyes shifted, and for a moment, it took on a green hue and assumed the shape of the Caged Bird Seal. Then, the seal's arms reached out and expanded until it had her entire body in its wraps. And so another Hyuuga took off, never to have the seal truly touch her life, or so she thought.

"Now! Get that Byakugan before she dies on us!"

I'm sorry if yuri with canon characters is not your cup of tea, but I just can't resist. It's my favorite pairing when it comes to this particular little sister.


	4. Full Circle

Extra Scene One: Full Circle

In the northernmost corner of Earth Country, a man's hand trembled as it crumpled the piece of paper that veiled his tearful face. In his homeland, he was known amongst the shinobi as the Thousand Eyed Binoculars and he was crying. Yes, he knew that ninjas were not supposed to cry, but he wasn't a ninja anymore. He hadn't been one since he was a brash young man who put adventure ahead of good sense.

_Mana..._

_...One month to live..._

_date: ..._

Three weeks ago? A cold feeling crept up on him.

"Serves that gold digger right..." A voice whispered from somewhere behind him. The speaker stiffened when he called her out by name without bothering to turn. She forgot that he was the Thousand Eyed for a reason.

"Mana is a great woman," he defended the woman named Mana. Inside, however, as much as he hated to admit, that gossiping secretary probably was right. Mana probably did marry him for the vast company that he and his mother owned and then divorce him to get her claws on the cash. But she was still the same Mana who rocked his world. He continued, "This branch is running smoothly now. It's time for me to return to headquarters."

Two weeks later, a blonde man with sunglasses and a matching, midnight colored suit stepped gracefully off of a boat that was docked on the beaches of a small, unnamed island not too far from the Land of Waves.

Kou's pale eyes brightened for the first time in days since he'd snuck aboard the ship. Several _long_ days since he'd gotten away from that awful daycare that they dragged him off to when Mommy went to sleep. Off to see Daddy, who, according to Mommy, lived on the other side of the sea.

Just above him, someone lifted the lid of the box that he was currently hiding in, which contained big cylinders. He shrunk away from that strong light that was burning out his sensitive, pale eyes for a bit, but then, to his eyes' relief, a large figure came and blocked the rays of the noon sun. The woman wore a metal plate with a funny drawing on her forehead. He'd seen one of those before around his home, but with a different drawing and a blue vest instead of a forest green one.

"Hi, Big Sister Ninja," he smiled. Ninja. The most trusted people everywhere. This was his lucky day.

"Yeah... I'm a ninja," the young woman replied. She looked directly at him, or rather, right into his eyes. People always did that and often called him a freak afterwards.

"Mommy said Daddy's a ninja, too. She wants me to find him."

"Son, what does your Daddy look like?"

"Well, he's got big, white eyes..." the boy started, but was not allowed to finish. Something flashed in the kunoichi's knowing eyes.

She smiled reassuringly and cut him off before he could say blonde hair, "I know where your Daddy is."

"Big Sister Ninja, please, help me," he pleaded, his Byakugan eyes big and round. "I wanna eat. Mommy promised he can get me lots of goodies. Haven't had any good stuff after she went to sleep."

The blonde child stared around in awe as the ninja carried him through the neighborhood. He'd never seen so many people with white eyes, like his own, before. He always thought he was the only one-the only neighborhood freak, as everyone from his home island called him. But he was still different. This time, it wasn't his eyes, but his shock of golden hair. All of these people had black or brown hair.

"We're here, at your Daddy's house," the kunoichi smiled as she knocked on the door of the vast mansion before them.

A few seconds later, a tan man with a bathrobe answered the door. Like everyone else in the neighborhood, he had a pair of pupillless, granite eyes. A second later, an exotic looking pale, eggplant haired woman appeared behind him.

"That's not my Daddy," Kou said. "Daddy got yellow hair."

"Kou-chan?" shouted a man's voice as he walked into through the door of an expensive-looking but ill-maintained house. There was no response. It was the same as everywhere else he looked in. "Kou! Come out! I'm your Dad and I'm here to take you to your new home!"

"Kouji?" he opened a closet door, but found only a few sheets and some clothes. His hands began to shake as invisible tears flooded down his cheeks. Those tears would have been real if the losses that he took during his career as a ninja in a now war-torn land did not cry him dry. It all came back to him. First was his best friend from the Academy, one of the few people willing to befriend him because his eyes did not look like everyone else's. But then, graduation, and with it, reality came and he had no choice but to force a kunai through his friend's heart. Then... his Jonin instructor died only a little bit after his promotion to Chunin. Then, every girlfriend that he's had during his career as a ninja. They all, like many kunoichi, died on dangerous missions against political factions within their own homeland of Water Country. His own sister was the worst by far. She wasn't related by blood, but being on the same genin team was as good as a blood tie. It was just a few months ago when he stopped by to visit, posing as a relative, and found her body, along with a handful of others, frozen in the ice jutsu that seemed to be her signature. But the jutsu was not well controlled and her body sported numerous injuries. Why? Why did a top notch jonin like herself let these people kill her?

The image of her and the group of civilians lying dead on the floor, frozen into the crystalline jutsu was one of the many images from his life as a ninja that he could not forget. Noting her loss, he went on to turn every corner of the town inside out for his friend's little boy, but there were no signs of the kid anywhere.

"Not again... not again," Kouichi murmured as he headed back to the village's orphanage.

Note: Kouichi is about a year younger than Hiashi and Hizashi and Kou (or Ko) is about 6-8 years older than Neji. I'm having some trouble writing The Medic right now, so I'll insert this deleted scene instead.


	5. Gentle Fist

The Medic is not coming along easily, so I'll show you a few more scenes with the Branch House. Also, Little Sister was inspired by the songs "Death of Love" and "Born in a Burial Gown", both by the awesome band called Cradle of Filth.

Gentle Fist

It was just a few days after the second round of the Chunin exams, when Kouichi got his first up close look at and tried to drown another person with his supposedly unique eyes. Just a few minutes after that battle, another Leaf genin showed up with a complete collection of the treasures that each team was supposed to gather.

"Okay, Horse, Tiger, Boar, straight fingers, Hare, Rat, Dog, Horse, Dog, Hare… Dog and Snake like this?" Kouichi grinned at the boy who stood at the other end of the clearing as he made the said hand seals. Immediately, a large amount of chakra came flowing into his already powerful eyes and granted him images of things that were supposed to be hidden behind solid surfaces, like the other boy's chakra and internal organs. It was far easier than just simply forcing his chakra into his eyes, which he learned to do on his own back in the Academy. "Alright! Haha! That was awesome!"

Just as he was about to jump up in celebration of his newly learned jutsu, the Konoha ninja started speaking again.

"That's the first step. Now, time to learn the rest of our arts. It's called Gentle Fist!" shouted the long haired boy. He looked exactly like the kid that Kouichi tried to drown with water based jutsus save for the fact that he wore the headband on his head. If he had not seen both kids together on the same boat right after they checked into the underwater castles, he would have been dead certain that this was the same guy. And he still wondered if it actually was the same person wearing the ninja badge in a different style.

"Heh. Bring it."

In response, the Hyuuga beckoned for the Water ninja to charge at him. He instructed, "Go for the heart. No chakra. Just taijutsu."

"Watch out, cuz here I come!" Kouichi's feet carried him towards the other ninja, but just as he was about to land a blow between two of the ribs, the Hyuuga caught his wrist and flung him to the ground in a move too fast for the naked eye to follow. The pale, blonde kid landed on the ground with a thud.

The sequence repeated itself for several hours, with Kouichi charging again and again without landing a hit.

"Come on, let's try again," requested the Leaf ninja for the thousandth time.

"So, dude, why are you teaching me all this?" asked the younger boy, the Mist ninja, as he picked himself up and took up battle stance again. "I bet you'd get real training if I'd hit you with one of my waves."

"Because you're one of…" the leaf genin began, but was interrupted.

Another identical boy sprang out from between the leaves of a palm tree and landed gracefully. "Those hopeless idiot bunke."

This newcomer was the one with the band around his neck instead of his forehead. That kid was smirking.

The other twin did not say much, nor did he need to. The twitch in his eyebrow and his next move, which was to charge at the other kid with a fist full of chakra, said everything that needed to be said.

Almost thirty years after that particular round of Chunin exams, a retired clan leader sat up in his bed as he beckoned for the other resident of his suite in the Hyuuga compound, a thirteen year old boy, to come over. The boy looked identical to the old man save for the hair and skin color. The hair was a rich color that was somewhat darker than chocolate brown but not yet ebony black while the skin tone was several shades lighter than the old man's.

"Take it," the former clan leader held out what looked like a thin book. "For your next chunin exams."

"Thank you." There was a subtle mix of emotions in the kid's voice and cool demeanor. The gratitude was directed completely at the old man, as was the idea that the retired clan leader had been reduced to nothing but a senile heap on the bed. Somewhere in the mix was bitter hate, mostly directed at a few other people, but still some for that old man. And that old man was the one who deserved almost all of that hate, thanks to a certain idea that he came up with all of those years ago.

Later that night, the old man watched with his Byakugan activated as the boy practiced alone outside their window. Chakra shot out like spikes at various points on his body. He was sure that in time, that kid would figure out how to unwrap the rest of the secret gift.

Caring for the kid when he was still healthy and then, when he was too ill to train the kid personally, giving him a few handwritten notes about certain elements of their family talents and chakra that were hidden neatly under the pages of an ordinary looking book did not make up for the trouble that his solutions to a certain problem caused, but it was something that he could still do.

Those notes… Both the grandfather and his grandson had to thank a certain inquisitive medical ninja for writing certain things down.


	6. The Medic

Notes: Yikes, this chapter was really hard, even when I had it all mapped out. I'm experimenting with the writing style and would love feedback. Thanks.

Name: Riko Hyuuga

Gender: Female

Ninja Academy Report Card

Math: 9.5/10

Reading: 9.3/10

Science: 10/10

Family and Consumer Science: 9.1/10

Flower arranging: 9.6/10

Fine Arts: 9.6/10

Taijutsu: 7.0/10

Genjutsu: 8.4/10

Ninjutsu: 7.5/10

Overall: 8.9/10 B+

The role of chakra pathways in a shinobi's vision inserted chapter: the Byakugan

Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electrochemical impulses in neurons. The normal human eye is a spherical organ. The spherical lens focuses incoming light and forms an inverted image of the surroundings onto the retina, which, in turn, translates the light into electrochemical signals for the brain to process. In this respect, the Byakugan is exactly like a normal human eye.

The normal human eye enjoys an immunologically privileged status, in contrast to most of the rest of the body. This means that it is inaccessible to the body's immune cells and lacks lymphatic vessels. Since the chakra system is an offshoot of the lymphatic system, the average shinobi eye that lacks kekkei genkai contains only trace levels of chakra compared with the rest of the body. [a]

The presence of the lymphatic system, and with it, chakra, is the key difference between the Byakugan and the normal human eye. The Byakugan trait is encoded by one gene, Chakra Channel 2, and that gene is expressed constitutively in the eye from the sixth month of gestation onwards. Each cell in the eye releases the product of the gene, the protein chakra channel growth factor 2[b]. This factor directs the development and maintenance special chakra channels between and inside every cell of the eye. Unlike normal chakra channels, which are found in the rest of the body, chakra channels in and around a Byakugan eye are very wide and do not contain chakra points within a four centimeter radius of the pupil. [c] A high basal level of chakra is present in the eye at all times. This chakra reacts with the proteins found in the humor of the eye to produce the white substance that gives the Byakugan the telltale white, pupilless appearance.

The excess of chakra in the Byakugan greatly enhances the natural abilities of the individual neurons of the retina to the point where we can noticeably detect every photon, including those few that traveled between every atom in the backs of our heads. A special film of chakra forms in the part of the eye that the retina does not cover, such as around the pupil, and reflects almost all light entering from the back of the head towards the retina, where it could be detected. All light coming from around the third thoracic vertebra is unfortunately reflected onto the center of the optic nerve, the common blind spot of all human eyes. It is through these enhancements that we literally see through the backs of our heads. When a Byakugan is activated, all chakra points around the eyes and in the skull open fully and project a nearly undetectable chakra field. The Byakugan is able to see everything that the chakra field touches.

**I believe that the remaining chakra points in the body, in theory, can be opened using a technique similar to activating the Byakugan, but this has yet to be confirmed. I need to be able to see these smaller chakra points first.

There are several subtypes of Byakugan and two ways of categorizing these subtypes.

The first is due to the variations in the anatomy of the eye that are encoded by other genes for eye development. The two largest factors are eye dimensions and lens flexibility.

The longer eyeballs are linked to a farther range of sight that is valuable for scouting while shorter eyeballs are linked with a better ability to zero in on details, such as chakra points at a close distance, such as during hand to hand combat or text when a book is closed.

More flexible lenses are linked to the ability to shift focus from short range to much longer ranges.

The second way to categorize different types of Byakugan is by the user's chakra type and flow direction. This is because all of the Byakugan's special abilities rely on a large pool of chakra.

Every Hyuuga who is known to be able to see chakra points has a strong type of chakra that is somewhat difficult to shape finely. These chakra types are generally associated with shinobi who are talented with taijutsu. There are several types of such chakra.

The finer types of chakra, which are most easily molded, are associated with talented medical ninja and somewhat correlated with a weaker ability to see chakra but stronger ability to see through or past solid objects.

There is still much to be discovered in the realm of the relationship between different chakra types.

[a] The chakra system is an offshoot of the lymphatic system. In a normal human who does not have the potential to become shinobi, lymphatic system serves to transport immune cells and nutrients, amongst other things. In a shinobi, the lymphatic system retains its biological function, but has many more small branches in its vessels. There is much overlap between lymphatic, the vessels that carry much of our body's fats, and chakra vessels and that is the basis of the "calories to chakra" ability of the Akimichi clan. Since most shinobi also carry this ability, but at a much smaller level, they do not often fall ill.

[b] Chakra channel growth factor 1 is the protein that is responsible for the development and maintenance of the chakra network

[c] Contrary to popular belief, we Hyuugas have pupils. In fact, the actual anatomy of our eyes is no different from the anatomy of any other eye.

Added by Riko Hyuuga

The Healer's Shinobi Anatomy Manual: Kekkei Genkai.

Insert before the Sharingan.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Riko cringed as she heard the leader of her clan roar from within her office, which she was temporarily locked out of. Her own office, hidden in a corner on the third floor of Konoha's hospital.

"How dare she write this... this CRAP on paper? Clan secrets! What if someone finds this?"

"Sir, she's a good fighter. I'm sure she'll beat up anyone who tries to steal her work."

"That runt can't jyuken a fly if she tried." A few moments later, the head of her clan stormed out of the door with an arm full of notes and 3D eye models that she worked forever for. She was later told to consider herself lucky in that the Main House saw no need to activate her seal.

Mission rank: C

Duration: Indefinite

Assigned ninja: Medical-nin Riko Hyuuga.

Provide medical relief to citizens on the border to Wind Country.

Year: First year of reign of Hiashi Hyuuga

Requester name: Riko Hyuuga

Classification: Bunke

Requests: Resign from post as shinobi

Relocate permanently to border cities

Marry civilian Noburu Inoue

Status: Granted

Hiashi-sama,

While living in Maple City, I have given birth to a son. Here is a photo.

Sincerely,

Riko Hyuuga

Behind the paper of the letter, there was a picture of a baby boy with brilliant, brown eyes. What the Hyuuga Main House never knew was that the picture was taken after the mother applied a genjutsu on her child.

Riko,

Congratulations. Your husband and son will always be a welcome guest in our house.

The Hyuuga Main House

Hyuuga family roster

First year after ascension of Hinata Hyuuga

Riko found the beautifully decorated document in her mail and unfolded it. It was an important piece that was mailed out to her only once before.

Decades. It's been decades since Riko left on a "mission" to a civilian city, if the granddaughter of the head that she served under was taking over. Oh yes, she remembered now. Hiashi took over around a year after she moved out of Konoha and managed to get through a few minor modifications to the laws that regulated the Branch House, allowing her to remain at her new location for as long as she could support herself. Reluctantly, she searched the records for her own name. It was the twenty-third generation from the fourth branch, or the fourth Byakugan bearing child of the Hyuuga clan's founder. She smiled. As much as she hated the clan and hated the man for selling all of his descendants into the servitude of the seal, she could not blame him, not when he lived in a period when most of their clan did not reach adulthood due to Byakugan collectors. She was rather proud to be a member of one of the most ancient branches. A silver thread led from her name to the one above it. Miyako Hyuuga. Like hers, the name was sewn on with a silver thread and had a pearl next to it to indicate that it belonged to a woman. But unlike hers, it had another red piece sewn next to it as well, just like one of the two other names that came down from Miyako on silver threads. Katsu Hyuuga. What an ironic name for her poor brother, who died on his first B-ranked mission. But at least the red meant that the Hyuuga family acknowledged her mother and oldest brother as fully fledged members. On her other side was the third line from Miyako Hyuuga. The name Kin was sewn onto that spot with a black thread. Just Kin, no Hyuuga family name.

Lucky little baby. She smiled at the memories. To think that she was so upset on the day he was declared old enough to survive without their mother, the day that he was sent to their father's ancestral home.

Flashback

"No fair, you can see everything with your Byakugan!" he whined as she pulled back some branches of the bush that he was hiding in.

"Yup. I got the Byakugan and you... don't."

"I'll get your eyes, just you wait!"

End of Flashback

No Byakugan. No place to call home in the Hyuuga compound, where, she later learned, she, her mother, and her other brother were forced to stay at most of the time. That also meant no grueling and mandatory Gentle Fist training from that cold taskmaster of clan leader or his twin sons, who were like clones of that guy, with the younger one slightly better than the older brother. It was a good thing the two boys preferred to practice with each other rather than the other Hyuuga children, such as her. Most of all, no Byakugan meant no Cursed Seal or servitude to the Main House.

She gently traced her finger back to her own name on the family tree again. Three lines came down from that one, too. There was just one name sewn in black, that was all. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips when she thought of how free her sweet little darling was.


End file.
